News of the week - Schröder wins trial against Westerwelle

Even though this issue was not discussed in the media during the whole past week, I still felt it is worth calling it the news of the week, because the issue might only be the top of the iceberg.

I am refering to the outcome of the trial that previous German chancellor Gerhard Schröder started against the frontman of the liberals, Guido Westerwelle, who accused Schröder of having provided the Russian energy giant Gazprom with a huge credit for a new oil pipeline between Russia and Germany, through the "Ostsee".

I have to go back, one step, though, to make the situation clear. Last year, the German governement (Schröder) and the Russian government (Putin) closed a deal to build an oil pipeline between the two countries. For the realisation of the pipeline, a new consortium was founded, represented from the Russian side by the state owned energy company Gazprom. In December last year, after his resignation as chancellor, Schröder accepted a job as chairman of the controlling board of management of this consortium, representing the interests of Gazprom. This caused a lot of turmoil, especially because of the close friendship between the Russian president and the former German chancellor. Schröder was heavily criticised under the suspicion of having used his relationship with Putin for personal gain.

Eerlier this year, it was revealed that the German government had provided Gazprom with a guarantee for a credit of around 1 billion Euro via the Deutsche Bank and another credit institution, shortly before the resignation of the government. The credit would secure the financing Gazprom needed for the production of the Russian side of the pipeline. Gerhard Schröder claimed to have known nothing about this credit guarantee. Guido Westerwelle, accused Schröder of unfair play, and Schröder started a trial against him.

Last week, a verdict was reached in the advantage of Schröder, saying that Schröder and the German government had done nothing wrong, legally.
A big relief for Schröder, no doubt, but I think we haven't seen the end of this story yet. This might just have been the top of the ice berg.